Clair Gaston holds a BFA from The University of North Texas and an MFA from the University of Houston. Gaston has been a teaching Fellow at UH, an instructor at The Glassell Junior School, and gallery teacher at The Contemporary Art Museum Houston and The Blaffer Gallery. She has been teaching for over 20 years and currently teaches at The Contemporary Austin Art School. She holds group and private lessons, masterclasses, and workshops online, and spends much of her time working in her Round Rock studio.
Gaston’s interests focus on natural subject matter and her preferred mediums are Oil Painting and Botanical Illustration. Primary influences on her work include Dutch still-life paintings, abstract Expressionism, early American landscape paintings. She also draws inspiration from gardening and daily life, with all its contrasts and connections.
Clair Gaston’s works have been featured and shown throughout the state of Texas and the East Coast at institutions including The Austin Museum of Art (now known as The Contemporary Austin), Davis Gallery, and Art.Science.Gallery.
Gaston is currently on faculty at The Art School of The Contemporary Austin and continues to instruct workshops and classes from her private studio in Central Texas. She has also had the pleasure of teaching Botanical Illustration at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.
When she is not completing illustrations, teaching classes, or getting lost in saturated colors, Clair spends time in her garden caring for and observing local wildflowers and plants. She is passionate about native plants and the environment. She celebrates life with her family, and their lovable dog and cat in peaceful Round Rock, TX.